The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
As we remained no longer than a week in Tokio, my recollections are
few. I was tattooed by the native artificers, to the astonishment of
the Japanese officials and nobles; for in Japan none save the common
people is tattooed. The Japanese artist designs in white upon dark,
working upon the skin round the chief ornament in his scheme; whereas
the English tattooer designs dark upon white, using the natural skin as
a background. Both methods are beautifully illustrated upon my person.
I witnessed the decapitation of six criminals. The victims stand in a
row, their hands bound behind them: each in turn is tapped on the
shoulder, when he kneels down, and bows his head. With a single
half-arm stroke, the executioner slices through the neck. I also saw a
crucifixion. The man's hands and feet are extended and tied to
cross-bars, so that he makes a figure like an hour-glass. Then he is
transfixed with a spear.
On the 8th September, the Duke returned to Yokohama by sea, taking with
him as his guest in the _Galatea_, Hiobukio-no-Miya, Prince of the
Blood, Minister of War, and other high dignitaries, who attended a ball
given at the British Legation. On the 16th, the _Galatea_ sailed for
China.
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CHAPTER XII
THE CRUISE OF H.M.S. _GALATEA_ (_Continued_)
VI. THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE
From Japan we proceeded to China, touching at Chefoo, Shanghai and
Hongkong. Nothing could exceed the princely hospitality of the great
British mercantile firms in China. It was then that I learned, what
subsequent experience confirmed, the remarkable integrity of the
business dealings of the Chinese. The head of the Chinese Bank told me
that he never had a bad account with a Chinaman. The Chinese keeps
agreements to the letter, quite irrespective of documentary contracts.
From China we proceeded to Manila, then a Spanish possession. My
principal recollection of Manila is the extraordinary prevalence of
cock-fighting. There was a cockpit in every street; and the sole
occupation of the inhabitants appeared to consist of betting upon their
birds. One used constantly to meet men walking in the street with
their birds under their arms. The cocks were armed with steel spurs
shaped like a scythe, and sharpened to a razor edge. I have seen a
bird spring up and slice the head of its adversary clean off, and I
have seen the chest of a bird slashed open, almost cutting its body in
two. The use of the artificial spurs affected the betting, making the
fight very much more uncertain and therefore more exciting. For,
whereas if a cock uses its natural spurs, the best bird probably wins,
an inferior bird armed artificially might gain the victory.
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From Manila we proceeded to Calcutta. Upon landing, I met my brother,
Lord Marcus, and with him I rode up, together with the staff, to
Government House. It is a singular coincidence that when I landed at
Calcutta, six years afterwards, on the corresponding date, when I was a
member of the staff of the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward
VII), I met my other brother, Lord William, and rode up with him to
Government House.
The _Galatea_ lay alongside the wharf. It was necessary to take the
most stringent precautions against cholera. Only one boy in the ship's
company was taken ill during our stay. He died inside an hour. But in
the merchant ships lying in the port there were many deaths. Men were
employed in working parties to push off with long bamboos the corpses
that were continually floating down from the Hooghli, lest they should
foul the moorings. The bodies used to come floating down with the
birds perching and feeding upon them.
We went up country, and enjoyed a great deal of excellent sport. We
went out pig-sticking, which is the finest sport in the world; we went
out tiger-shooting upon elephants; and riding upon elephants, we shot
partridges--a form of sport by no means easy. I remember an irascible
old colonel of artillery, who became very hot, and who missed a good
many partridges, saying indignantly to the Duke:
"This is all d----d rot. I could shoot more partridges on Woolwich
Common."
It was the same peppery soldier who, when one of the members of the
staff had fallen ill, went with me upon a visitation to the sick. We
found the invalid in a state of extreme agitation, and surrounded with
books of a religious nature.
"I think--I hope--" he kept saying, "that I shall be forgiven. I think
I shall--I hope so."
"What's he saying? What's he saying?" cried the colonel, who, as often
happens to people in hot weather, had become rather deaf.
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"He thinks he's dying," I shouted.
Whereupon the colonel, turning angrily to the invalid, shouted,
"You d----d fool, you have only over-eaten yourself!"
The sick man was so infuriated that he hurled his books of religion at
the colonel, and sprang out of bed. Next day he was quite well.
Another member of the staff was mounted one day upon a red horse (they
paint their horses in India), a wild, half-broken Arab steed, which was
giving its rider a deal of trouble. I advised my friend to dismount,
and left him. Presently I rode back to find him on foot and alone. I
asked him, where was his horse?
"Gone," said he. "Whenever that d----d horse saw a mosquito, it sat
down and cried like a child. So I kicked it in the belly and it ran
away into the jungle."
We visited Trincomalee, where the elephants built the dockyard. They
carried the timber and they carried the stones, and they lifted the
stones into position and adjusted them with their feet. The remarkable
thing about the climate of Ceylon is its intermittent showers of
tropical violence, followed by bursts of sunshine. In the result, you
actually see the foliage growing. I remember the extraordinary beauty
of the native decorations, which are fabricated of palms and leaves and
flowers.
From Colombo we went to Mauritius, arriving there in May, 1870. Here I
climbed the famous mountain called Pieter Botte, or, more correctly,
Pieter Both.
The mountain is so named after Pieter Both, Governor-General of the
Dutch East Indies in the early part of the seventeenth century, and the
founder of Dutch power in that region. On his homeward voyage he was
wrecked in the bay overlooked by the mountain, which thereafter bore
his name. Previous ascents are recorded in the archives at Mauritius,
from which it appears that mine was the fourteenth. Admiral Sir
William Kennedy ascended Pieter Botte in 1861; he gives an account of
his climb in his {105} interesting book, _Hurrah for the Life of a
Sailor_ (London, Nash). Kennedy started with a party of fourteen
persons, of whom five reached the summit.
At nine o'clock in the morning I started, together with the captain of
the maintop, Edward Hele. We took with us ropes, a rope ladder,
cod-line, and a small lead. These were all our appliances. We drove
to the foot of the mountain and began the ascent at 11.5 a.m. Now the
mountain of Pieter Botte is shaped like a church with a steep roof,
from one end of which rises a spire. This pinnacle of rock is crowned
with a huge, rounded, overhanging boulder.
Part of the ridge was so sharp that we were forced to sit on it and to
proceed astride. Then we came to the pinnacle. The ascent was so
sharp and difficult that we were obliged to take off both shoes and
socks. At one point, I lost my balance, and was only saved from
falling backwards by Hele's ready hand. Climbing the pinnacle was far
more difficult than scaling the overhanging boulder at the top. At the
top of the pinnacle there was just room to stand beneath the
overhanging boulder. The only possible method of climbing the boulder
was to get the rope ladder over the top of it. Accordingly, one end of
the rope ladder was attached to the lead-line. In order to swing the
lead, one of us was roped with a round turn round his body, while the
other, lying on his back, held the rope while the leadsman, leaning
right backwards and outwards over the sheer precipice of some 3000 feet
fall, swung the lead. We took it in turns to swing the lead; as we
leaned outwards, the rock spread over our heads like an umbrella; and
it was an hour and a half before we succeeded in casting it over the
boulder. Then we hauled the rope ladder over and made all fast. It
was too short, and the last few yards we hauled ourselves up hand over
hand. So we climbed to the top, which is a platform of about 20 feet
square. It was then 1.59 p.m. We took off our shirts, and waved them
to the warships lying far below in the bay, from which we were {106}
plainly to be distinguished with the aid of a telescope. The ships
each saluted us with one gun. We planted on the summit a flag upon
whose staff were carved our names and the names of our ships. When we
returned, my brother officers gave us a dinner to celebrate the event.
Hele was eventually promoted to warrant officer. When Hele died, I was
able to help his son to gain his education, and he did very well. It
was in Mauritius that we went out shooting with the native population;
one of the most dangerous amusements in which I have ever taken part,
for the bullets used to whistle in the air all round us.
From Mauritius we proceeded to Cape Town. Here, on the 12th July,
1870, the Duke inaugurated the new harbour, breakwater and docks. I
kept a team on shore, and used to drive up from Simon's Bay to Cape
Town. Every now and then we stuck in a quicksand. On one such
occasion I had a brother officer with me; and as he was afflicted with
a cold, I took him on my back to save him from wet feet. But I fell
with him, and we were both soaked to the skin. Upon another day, when
we stuck, I put two of my messmates on the leaders, and they pulled the
coach right through. If you want horses to pull a weight out of a
tight place, put weight on their backs.
The Colonial Secretary at Cape Town was Mr. Southey. He was a most
delightful and sagacious person, and became a great friend of mine. He
prophesied in a most wonderful way what would be the future of South
Africa.
"If," said he, "we could only get a big man, a master-mind, to come out
here, all that I foresee would come true."
The right man presently arrived in the person of the late Cecil John
Rhodes, and my friend's prophecies have been most singularly fulfilled.
While at the Cape, we went up country, shooting. Both Dutch and
English families were most kind and hospitable to us. Upon one of
these expeditions, a member of the staff went out by himself very early
in the morning to shoot. Observing some ostriches in the distance, he
stalked {107} them with immense labour and patience, and presently
succeeded in shooting a couple of birds. When he returned, he
complained that it had been very difficult to get his sights on, owing
to some high rails which were between himself and the birds. It had
not occurred to him that he had been stalking tame ostriches on a farm.
I once rode from Cape Town to Simon's Town and back, between lunch and
dinner, galloping the whole distance, with four changes of horses. The
distance between the two places is about 35 miles as the crow flies.
My errand was merely to postpone the arrival of a visitor who was to
come to the _Galatea_.
The ride, however, showed that I was in good condition. I have always
tried to keep myself fit, holding that condition of body regulates
condition of mind. Cheery people deserve small credit, because their
frame of mind is due to their being right inside. Quarrelsome people
are wrong inside.
On our way to England we touched at the Falkland Islands where I
visited a relative of mine who kept a ranch. He used bull-dogs to